Peel Regional Council today voted to release a report by Deloitte that questions the analysis and recommendations by Mississauga City Council to become a “single tier city.” Mayor Crombie, who was not present for the vote to release the report, has been a vocal advocate for her city to separate from the Region.
Mississauga council recently approved an internal city report that builds a case for the city to separate from the Region of Peel. This comes as the Province of Ontario is conducting a Regional Governance Review. Mayor Crombie is on record stating that her city is subsidizing $85M to Brampton and Caledon this year. Mayor Brown has refuted these claims and suggested that Mississauga would owe Brampton money that his city has sent to Mississauga since the 1970’s and an equalization payment would have to be paid.
The Deloitte report questions Mississauga’s assertion that “Mississauga would still share in the costs of services – a cost based on population rather than assessment growth.” The report adds that “allocating costs based on population is flawed and is not used as a property tax distribution methodology in Ontario.”
To highlight the flaw in Mississauga’s analysis, Deloitte asks “is it fair that residents of Port Credit and Streetsville pay different taxes because of assessed value.”
In a recent interview, Mayor Brown says that the province’s Regional Governance Review is not the priority for Brampton, citing a need to “address hallway medicine, creating jobs and managing the hydro mess”. However, he adds that “the facts are on Brampton’s side and we hope that over this conversation that reasonable minds will prevail.”
